Chideya and team go to Florida to talk about the ways the American Dream is colliding with reality, and what it means in the voting booth. Chideya speaks with Colonel Allen West, a black Tea Party candidate; residents of a historic black community, where the land has been contaminated by industrial toxins, who say business and politicians have abandoned them; Muslim-Americans in Gainesville; and victors and victims of the foreclosure crisis.

While get out the vote efforts are ramping up, conservative group Latinos for Reform is displaying a counter message: Don’t Vote.

NPR spoke to frontman Robert Deposada, who mentioned that staying away from the polls isn’t exactly what he meant:

In an interview Wednesday, he said the message is to boycott politicians who haven’t lived up to their promises. He said there’s no attempt to suppress the vote. But there was a problem fitting everything into the 60-second time frame.

“The last part of the ad, the tag line, said, ‘Don’t vote for those who betrayed you.’ And because of timing, we decided to cut that ‘for those who betrayed you,’ because we thought that the message was very clear in the rest of the ad,” Deposada said. He takes “full responsibility” for the editing job, he said.

This is the first ad by Latinos for Reform this election cycle. Two years ago, the group ran an ad alleging that candidate Obama discriminated against Latinos.

As much as I am loathe to engage with someone who likes to stoke interracial tensions for cheap political gains, Deposada does have a point when he says:

Deposada said Wednesday that Republicans have written off the Hispanic community. And while he’s bashing Reid, he said that doesn’t mean he’s supporting Angle, who has aggressively courted the anti-immigration vote. “Do you prefer to be stabbed in the back or clubbed over the head? I think both are irresponsible, both are horrible options.”

Race, Culture, and Identity in a Colorstruck World

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Racialicious is a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture. Check out our daily updates on the latest celebrity gaffes, our no-holds-barred critique of questionable media representations, and of course, the inevitable Keanu Reeves John Cho newsflashes.

Latoya Peterson (DC) is the Owner and Editor (not the Founder!) of Racialicious, Arturo García (San Diego) is the Managing Editor, Andrea Plaid (NYC) is the Associate Editor. You can email us at team@racialicious.com.